Netanyahu, Rubio Discuss Plans to Strike Iran, Israeli Officials Say

The striking detail is the dual political lock: both Washington and Jerusalem have tied any action to their own election calendars, which effectively caps escalation risk in the near term regardless of what intelligence is cited. That makes the phone call less a signal of imminent strike planning than a coordination exercise between two leaders who each need the option to remain live without exercising it. The open question is whether the intelligence assessments being leaked are meant to build a public case for later action, or simply to keep pressure on Tehran during a period when neither capital can move.